Chilli Garlic Prawns

Recently we went on an amazing Scotland trip for few days where we visited many places in and around Scotland and tried different cuisine on all days. One among them was a Thai lunch from a Thai restaurant near the Edinburgh Castle called ?Thai Orchid?. I vaguely remember when I had Thai food before that. At Thai Orchid, we ordered a platter of starters to start with, which included chicken satay with peanut butter dip, Thai omelettes, Thai samosas, and deep fried prawns wrapped in wonton wraps, along with three other dips. They all had certain names in Thai language which I would never remember any ways. For the mains we ordered a seafood Pad thai, chicken Red curry and coconut rice. And Boy, it was finger licking good. The only negative point that I could point out was the amount of oil that was added to each dish.

If you have never eaten Thai, I strongly recommend you should. I have tried creating it at home, but cheated on it using ready-made curry paste. I would try to post the recipe when I try the authentic way rather than the cheat?s way. Thai dishes uses coconut milk immensely in their dishes and it has slight resemblance in taste to our Kerala dishes. Thai dishes are very aromatic as well due to the use of different flavours like lemon grass, galangal, Kaffir limes leaves, basil, Shrimp paste and most importantly fish sauce and coconut milk. I really got hooked to Thai cuisine ever since I had it from Edinburgh and badly wanted to recreate it at home. So started for researching on the net for Thai recipes, came up with many recipes from many sources and Finally I planned to make Thai red curry. When I went over the ingredient list, there were many ingredients that were not at home. Went to the supermarket and found that they dint have many either. So I thought I would cheat on the recipe for the time being by using a ready-made curry paste. So brought home a readymade Thai red curry paste and made a delicious meal consisting of a simple chicken red curry, Thai coconut rice and these Garlic prawns that I posted today. It was really easy to prepare all the dishes. I also tried garlic stir fried in red curry paste which was amazing too. You can find many of Thai cuisines at http://www.tan-kitchen.com/. I was always looking forward to make red curry paste at home, but it never worked until now. May be in future I would be trying it. And you too can create amazing Thai flavours at home.

I also bought a really good book on Chinese-Thai-Indian cuisines and can?t wait to try the dishes out. If you are in the UK, and you have W.H.Smith nearby, Go and grab this Asian book on deal: 400 recipes WOK & STIR FRY. RRP was £14.99 and now down to £2.99. I guess they are clearing them off. It was £5 before that when I purchased a similar book on cake decoration book. The book is really a chunky one and has 512 pages which also includes step by step preparation and pictorial representation of each dish. Below is how the book:

Ok, stories apart, when coming to todays recipe, Chilli garlic prawns, as the name indicates is a very simple garlic dish packed with garlicky flavour with a kick from the chilli heat. I prepared these as a side to go with Coconut rice and red curry. The flavour was very good but I guess it will only pair with Thai ? Chinese dishes. It went well with Thai coconut rice. This can also be served along side noodles and fried rice.

250g cleaned Prawns

5 large garlic cloves

4 whole Dried Kashmiri chilli (Reduce if you are using a Hot chilli)

1-2 Tablespoons butter/Vegetable oil

Salt- as required

1. Heat a sauce pan and add butter. When melted, add chopped dries chillies and garlic and sauté till garlic goes soft.

2. Add prawns and required amount of salt; Cook for around 10 minutes or until done. This dish will pair well with noodles, fried rice etc..

Note: Too much of cooking will make the prawns hard, so check in between and if the prawns turn juicy and soft, that should be done. Cooking time may depend on the heat and medium of saucepan used.